Archive for October 18th, 2005


Hurricane Wilma

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 12:47 - Category: Unfiled ;

Wilma is forecast to become a major hurricane
in the northwestern Caribbean sea. All interests in western
Cuba…The Yucatan peninsula…The Florida keys…And the Florida
peninsula should closely monitor the progress of Wilma.

Check the bizarre predicted storm track around the west end of Cuba then veering sharply east and crossing lower Florida.

No Comments »

Sing, little bird, sing

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 12:05 - Category: Unfiled ;


Bonus Quote of the Day. “They have got a senior cooperating witness — someone who is giving them all of that.”



– A source who has been questioned in the CIA leak probe, quoted by the New York Daily News, suggesting that one of Dick Cheney’s top aides might be cooperating with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.



Raw Story says the cooperating witness is John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Cheney’s office. Talk Left has an excellent explanation of the pressure to cooperate.

No Comments »

Well put

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 08:21 - Category: Unfiled ;

No Comments »

Bird flu

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 08:15 - Category: Unfiled ;


EU urges global bird flu response

A bird flu pandemic is a global threat needing a co-ordinated international response, say EU foreign ministers.


CDC Bird Flu page

From the LA Times

Health experts emphasized that the virus passes from birds to humans with great difficulty and that the risk of human-to-human transmission is lower still.



“Tens of millions of birds have been
affected. But there have been only about 117 human cases in two years,”
World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said. “This is a very
difficult disease to move from animals to humans.”

However

UN Health Official warns, “”The range of deaths [from bird flu] could be anything between 5m and 150m.”

And

Why an exotic fruit is the world’s only weapon against bird flu

But don’t rush out and try to buy some

Only
star anise grown in the four provinces of China is suitable for
manufacture into Tamiflu and 90 per cent of the harvest is already used
by Roche.


No Comments »

U.S. labor is in retreat as global forces squeeze pay and benefits

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 08:03 - Category: Unfiled ;

Workers at auto parts maker Delphi Corp. will be asked this week to take a two-thirds pay cut. It’s one of the most drastic wage concessions ever sought from unionized employees.

Workers at General Motors Corp., meanwhile, tentatively agreed on
Monday to absorb billions of dollars in healthcare costs. Ford Motor
Co. and DaimlerChrysler employees are certain to face similar demands.

Are the managements of these companies also taking comparable pay and
benefits cuts? Well of course they aren’t. The elites continue to get
wealthy as the workers get shafted. The system of predatory capitalism
we live under insists that companies continually find cheaper ways of
doing things, paying as little as they can, which hurts everyone except
for the privileged few on top who continue to amass wealth.

No Comments »

Are British troops at breaking point in Iraq?

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 08:00 - Category: Unfiled ;

Fears that British forces in Iraq are reaching “breaking point” grew last night as the first hard evidence of a crisis in morale began to emerge.

No Comments »

Cheney’s office is a focus in leak case

Bob Morris @ Oct 18th 2005 07:59 - Category: Unfiled ;

As
the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent’s name hurtles to an
apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has
zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney’s office,
according to lawyers familiar with the case and government officials.
The prosecutor has assembled evidence that suggests Cheney’s
long-standing tensions with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of
operative Valerie Plame.



Lawyers in the case said Fitzgerald
has focused extensively on whether behind-the-scenes efforts by the
vice president’s aides and other senior Bush aides were part of a
criminal campaign to punish Wilson in part by unmasking his wife.

Most news sources are all but predicting major indictments. The next
few weeks will be tumultuous. It’ss all related to the Iraq War too. In
a deeply petty abuse of power, they outed Valerie Plame because her
husband criticized the war in a NY Times Op-ed.

No Comments »